live to tell the tale
by twinesstar
Summary: an alternate story to james alive where lily aslo lives and annie is there too.
1. living

A/N this is sort of an alternate story to James alive where lily is alive as well, also Annie is in this story.

Lily watched her twins play happlily together growing tired as the day wore on. She had wished James would have come home before she put the twins to bed but he was head auror now and was kept late more often than not.

"come on you two," she said scooping her twins into her arms. She started her acent up the stairs when a loud CRASH echoed from below. Lily tried not to panic as she looked across the room and outside the window.

'_Its him!' _she thought frantically. '_Peter betrayed us!_'she looked around and set the twins in their cribs ready to defend them at any cost.

"stand aside girl and you wont be harmed." Said a cold crule voice,

"please please not my children! Take me instead!" lily screamed knowing he would never be merciful.

"I said stand aside silly girl! Now stand aside!" he yelled again.

"no please! Please! Have mercy!" lily tried in vain again.

"_Avada Kadavra!" _he screamed loosing patients. Lily fell to the ground. Voldimort moved to the crib with the baby boy in it.

"_Avada Kadavra!" _

James arrived home after receiving an urgent note from Sirius.

"are they ok?" he asked Sirius as soon as he arrived.

"we haven't found them yet but –" he was cut off by an earspliting cry. The two men ran as fast as they could towards the cry, as another cry rang out. James serched only a moment before he pulled out the crying figure of his daughter.

"Annie!" he breathed in relief, hugging her tightly. He then followed the other scream to find his son crying his lungs out in Rachel's arms.

"found him," she said passing her godson to James who hugged him and Annie tightly.

"wheres lily?" he suddenly asked. Rachel looked worried.

"we haven't found her yet," she said. James handed Rachel the twins and ran off looking for his wife.

He looked over in relief as a woman tried to sit up, healers swarmed around her lifting her onto a streacher. James followed them, telling the healers it was his wife.

Rachel watched as they disapperated the streacher to saint mungos, and watched as James disapperated after them.

"ann' Rachel!" Annie whined.

"what is it sqirt?" Rachel asked.

"where dada?" she asked.

"where dada?" harry repeated.

"dada went to make sure mama was ok." She told them. Sirius came up behind her taking harry from her.

"hey buddy," he said bouncing the one year old. "you wanna come to aunt Rachel and uncle Sirius's house?" harry nodded.

The four of them disapperated arriving back at the black's house.

"its late, why don't we get you two to bed?" Rachel said starting to walk up the stairs. Sirius followed.

Rachel laid her goddaughter in her baby cot, kissed her head and walked towards he godson. She bent over to kiss his forehead, but as she moved his hair out of the way she gasped,

"what is it rache?" Sirius asked.

"Sirius? Did you see this?" she asked frantically, Sirius shook his head.

"oh my is that where-?" he looked amazed, Rachel nodded.

"I think it is." She looked a little worried, "but I'm sure its ok," she tried to convince herself though she was never very good at that.

After putting the twins in bed Sirius left for saint mungos to make sure James and lily were ok. He walked to the front desk.

"I'm looking for lily potter," he said.

"yes fourth floor, room 203," she said in a bored tone.

"thank you," he walked very fast towards the elevater. He walked into the room and saw James sitting by the bed that a red headed lily lie in.

"James," he said closing the door quietly. James jumped slightly,

"oh hey Sirius," he said.

"you ok?" Sirius asked sitting down in another chair.

"I guess so," he said looking at his unconcious wife.

"she's gonna be ok James, the twins are ok, you are going to be ok," Sirius said comfortingly for her friends.

"I know," he said sadly. "is Rachel taking care of the twins," he asked suddenly.

"yes they're asleep," he said reasuringly. James nodded sinking back into the plastic chair. Just then lily woke up.

"James!" she asked frantically trying to get up.

"its ok lilyflower I'm here, its ok," James soothed her until her breathing returned to normal.

"what about harry? And Annie?" she asked getting frantic again.

"lily calm down they're ok, Rachel is watching them." Sirius soothed her the best he could.

"what happened?" she asked.

"we don't know for sure but we know voldimort came to your house, that peter – that rat! – betrayed us." James said, "but we don't know the details." He looked at lily sadly, knowing she was the only one that would be able to give the details.

"he came, he followed me to the twins room upstairs, and told me to stand aside. He told me he wouldn't harm me if I just stood aside, and let him kill harry." Lily's voice shook, "I wouldn't stand aside, and he –" she suddenly broke off.

"what? What did he do?" James asked frantically.

"I don't understand how I survived." She said,

"what do you mean? He didn't use the killing curse? Did he?" Sirius asked, lily just nodded mutly.

"but that's impossible, no one ever survived that curse. Are you sure that's the curse he used?" James asked. Lily nodded again,

"I heard him say it, I saw the green light," she said her head realling. Had she imagined it? No she had heard him say it. She had seen the grean light. But how was it possible that she had survived? "wait! Where did he go? Is he going to come back for harry?"

"calm down lily. We don't know how but he's gone, he just disappeared after he tried to curse harry." James said.

"what!" lily screamed. "he tried to curse harry?" James nodded.

"he used the killing curse, but harry survived as well." James said. "I asked Dumbledore about it, he said we may never find out how, but that really means he has a very good theory that is probably correct." Lily gave a shaky laugh.

"that's Dumbledore for you." She smiled. Good old Dumbledore.

A/N hey please tell me what you think by reviewing, oh and I am going to continue James alive I'm just a little stuck on ideas. Thanks for reading, I hope to do more writing the rest of the weak because its spring break and I'm in texas with little to do because there is absolutely no one my age here, not to mention I have a two day car ride on the way back to ohio. Sorry about the rambling, the point was I hope to get a lot of writing done over spring break. Thanks again for reading. Please review.

Twinesstar.


	2. tense reunion

Chapter 2

A weak later lily was ready to be released from saint mungos, the healers could find no lasting affects of the faulty killing curse, and were unable to keep her any longer.

"Ready Lil?" James asked her as they prepared to floo home,

"James I have been ready to leave this dump since the day after I got here, I feel perfectly fine and would be very happy to go home," she said very irritated, she had in fact wanted to leave as soon as she felt better but the healers had insisted that she stay at least a weak, and this did not make the redhead very happy at all.

James just smiled at his wife knowing that she was just in a bad mood and would be fine as soon as she saw the kids who were being watched by Rachel and Sirius. James chuckled a little to himself. Lily had flipped out when he had told her Sirius was watching the kids, the only way to sooth her was to try and convince her Rachel was there too.

Arriving back at their home lily sat down on the couch and James went to get the kids from Rachel and Sirius's.

"Harry! Annie!" he said walking in the door,

"Dada!" they both screamed in delight. James smiled as his two raven haired children ran from the table where they were eating lunch,

"Hey buddy, squirt." James said hugging them. "Ready to go see mummy?" the twins nodded. James smiled and picked them up, "thanks for watching them Rache, Sirius,"

"No problem James," Rachel said. "We need the practice." She smirked at Sirius.

"Right," James said also smirking at his best mate. "Baby on the way right?"

Rachel smiled as James walked back to his own house with the twins,

"Mama!" the twins yelled happily running for their mother,

"Harry! Annie!" she said in relief, she was still very worried for her children's safety. Especially with Sirius, even if Rachel was there.

"They already ate lunch so, nap time." James said taking his daughter from lily. "Come here squirt," he tickled her tummy, laughing with her as she giggled.

"James don't rile them up right before their naps." Lily said rolling her eyes at her husband and walking up the stairs. James shrugged and followed her.

"Night, night, squirt." He said kissing her forehead. Annie blinked her eyes sleepily, before falling fast asleep. James walked to where lily stood watching Harry sleep.

"I did every thing I could but he's still left with that awful scar," she leaned into James shoulder,

"Your right Lils, you did everything you could, if you hadn't put yourself between them and Voldemort, they might not be alive at all. You saved them Lil. You did everything you could and more." Lily cried silently into James shirt. "You are a wonderful mother Lils. You know that." Lily nodded still crying.

The next morning lily and James were awoken by two very hyper one year olds.

"Mummy! Daddy!" they yelled jumping up and down on the bed.

"Harry, Annie, what are you two doing out of bed?" lily asked sitting a bouncing Annie on her lap. James did the same with harry.

"Wake up!" Annie said jumping in her seat.

"Alright then breakfast time." James said swinging his legs off the bed. He took Annie from his wife and walked down the stairs with the two giggling toddlers. Lily smiled at her family before going to get ready for the day. She was going back to work as a part time healer next week so she needed to get shopping done before she went back to work. James and Sirius were going back to work as aurors today so lily would be taking care of the kids herself.

She went down stairs wearing a cream sweater with a black belt over dark jeans. James was still wearing his pjs and attempting to get the twins in their highchairs for breakfast. Key word 'attempting'. Lily rolled her eyes and took Harry from James putting him easily in his highchair. James had an easier time putting Annie in her chair without having to hold onto Harry at the same time.

"James it's nearly eight you better get ready for work." Lily said smirking at James quidditch pjs.

"Crap!" he exclaimed. "Don't want to be late the first day back." He then darted up the stairs to change into auror robes. He came back down kissing lily quickly on the lips, ruffling Harry's hair, and kissing Annie's head, before proceeding to the fireplace and off to work.

Lily feed the twins breakfast before Rachel came in the back door.

"Hey lily, ready to do some shopping?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, I was thinking we should go to diagon alley first, then on the way home do some muggle grocery shopping," lily said taking her son from his chair.

"Sounds good, I'll help you get the twins ready." Rachel said picking up her goddaughter.

Rachel dressed Annie in a white dress, pink leggings, and a pink jacket over the top. Harry was dressed in pants, a blue tee-shirt and a dark blue jacket.

"Shoes on Annie girl." Rachel said trying to get Annie to put on her shoes.

"No shoes! No shoes!" Annie giggled loudly enjoying testing her godmother.

"Well then your gonna have to stay here while we go shopping." Rachel said.

"No!" Annie yelled. "Me go! Me go!"

"Then put on your shoes, ok?" Annie nodded and let her aunt slip the shoes on without hassle.

"Alright is everybody ready?" lily said coming down the stairs with harry. Annie nodded and the four of them walked towards the fireplace. They did their shopping in diagon alley before walking back into muggle London to do some muggle shopping. They went to a muggle clothing shop first because Rachel was complaining about how none of her clothes fit properly. Harry and Annie were strapped into a double pram next lily, who sat on a chair outside the dressing room. Rachel found a few outfits for now and made lily promise that they would come back when she was bigger.

They walked back through muggle London looking for the café lily liked to go to in the muggle world. They got seats outside because it was a very nice day for fall. Just as they had started eating a large blonde boy who looked no older than a year and a half old, ran past them. A blonde woman followed.

"Duddy!" she called. "Duddy come back!" she caught up to him and picked him up. Lily stared watching the scene.

"Petunia?" she asked the woman. She looked very startled.

"l-lily?" she stuttered. Lily nodded.

"Is this your son?" she asked politely.

"Yes this is Dudley." She answered with affection any mother would have for their child. "Are these two yours?" she seamed to have forced herself to say the question back.

"Yes this is harry, and this is Annie." Lily said. Rachel watched the exchange; she could tell lily was trying to be pleasant to her sister after years of not talking and rudeness. She knew lily wanted the close bond with her sister that she used to have, so she tried to be pleasant. Petunia seamed to be struggling with a similar problem.

"Well goodbye." She said briskly walking away. Lily sighed watching her sister walk away. It had been nearly three years since they had communicated at all and even longer since the communication had been pleasant. Lily just wanted her old sister back, the one she had before she found out she was a witch.

Annie started to get fussy which pulled lily from her thoughts. Petunia wasn't her family, hadn't been since she was ten years old. Her parents were now dead, but she had a new family, one with James, harry, Annie, Rachel, Sirius, and Remus. They were her true family. And it was no use dwelling on the family member she once had, lily told herself firmly. She needed to concentrate on her current family, make sure her children, husband, and friends were safe. This was more important.

A/N hey guys thanks for reading please tell me what you think. I've been rather busy this week being back at school from spring break. But I finally got this chappy finished. I didn't get any reviews on the last chappy so please be the first to review and get a sneak peak of the next chap. Thanks

Twinesstar.


	3. a baby

Chapter 3

A few months had passed, Remus had come home from a full moon to find his wife dead {1} Rachel was now four months pregnant and craving very weird things, like pizza and whip cream; together. Lily was also not feeling well, she was starting to get sick every morning and by the third time she was convincced she was pregnant.

She and Rachel were looking for clothes for Rachel and picking up a pregnancy test on the way home. The guys were home for the day so they were watching the twins.

"this looks terrible on me!" Rachel exclaimed turning in the mirror. Examining herself in a red shirt.

"no I think that one looks great on you!" lily said, Rachel had been doing this the whole time. She humf'd and went to change into another outfit. Another hour of this and Rachel had finally picked out a few outfits she had deamed 'decent' and the two of them were walking into another muggle store, lily got a few pregnancy tests. The two found an alley and apperated to their respective homes.

Lily got home to find James and harry asleep on the couch with the TV on, while Annie was playing with her doll house. She smiled and made to go upstairs without Annie noticing.

"mama!" well there went that plan.

"shh." Lily said pointing to the sleeping boys on the couch.

"shh." Annie repeated putting her finger on her lips and giggling slightly.

"come here spuirt," lily said scoping up the little girl. "do you want to keep playing with your dolls or do you want to play in your room."

"dolly's." she said squirming to get back down.

"ok but you have to stay here until I get back, or daddy wakes up." Lily said walking up the stairs. She walked into the bathroom and a few moment latter squealed with delight. She ran down the stairs as fast as she could, both harry and Annie were now awake and playing with the building blocks.

"James! James wake up!" she shook her husband waking him up from his nap.

"what's wrong?" he asked more alert.

"nothing is wrong silly, I have humongous new to tell you," she was nearly bursting with exitment.

"what's this big news?" he asked curious,

"well you know how ive been having morning sickness for the last couple days" James nodded, lily smiled waiting for him to grasp what she was saying. He suddenly did.

"really?" he asked a smile lighting his face. He looked down at her tummy. She pulled his hands onto the right now still flat tummy.

"James there is a baby in there right now, we're gonna be parents again." She squealed. Harry and Annie were now looking at their parents in interest as their mummy was squeeling happily.

"mummy?" harry said putting his arms up to be held.

"yes buddy?" she asked as James took Annie in his arms.

"you happy?" he asked pointing at the huge smile on her face.

"yes harry mummy is very happy right now, and you should be very happy too, because your gonna have a new baby brother or sister." Lily said happily.

"a baby!" Annie asked excitedly. Lily nodded. "where?" Annie started looking around for the new baby.

Lily pointed at her tummy. "here in mummy's tummy, just like aunt Rachel." Annie smiled and reached forward to pat her mums flat tummy. So did harry.

"So can we go tell them now?" James said jumping in his seat.

"yes James we can tell them." This caused James to jump up with Annie still in his arms and run next door.

"Sirius! Rachel!" he called running through the house.

"what James?" Rachel asked having a pretty good idea what would make James so happy. Sirius though looked very confused.

"I'm having a baby!" he shouted in exitment just as lily walked into the room.

"actually love _I _am having a baby. You don't have to be the one pregnant." Lily said. Sirius grumbled something that sounded like 'still bloody hard'

"what was that honey?" Rachel asked sweetly.

"nothing, nothing." He said shuddering thinking of the time he had told her that it was hard for the guys as well, having to get all the weird foods in the middle of the night, having to deal with the mood swings and all that. He was on the couch for a week before her hormones kicked in. James remembered the time he had said those things as well, and he had er, _acidentally_ forgot to tell Sirius not to say it.

Lily and Rachel shared smiles behind the shuddering boys backs, lily was happy she was still in the lead for keaping James on the couch for nearly two weeks.

"who wants to go out to dinner?" Sirius asked. Everyone agreed so they invited Remus, and the weasley's to go to the fizzing dragon – one of their faverate magical resteraunts in diagon alley. They had a very large table fro all of them, harry, Annie, and Ron, were in highchairs near each other so they could play, next to Annie was James lily sat next to him. On the other side of Ron was Mr. weasley who sat next to Mrs. Weasley who was holding six month old Ginny. Fred and George sat next to her, then bill, Charlie, and Percy. Then Remus who sat next to Sirius, and Rachel was next to lily. They talked and ate for a while before Mrs. Weasley spoke up.

"it was nice of you to invite us to dinner," she said, "but I was wondering if there was a particular reason you called this get together on such short notice?"

"well actually there is," lily said standing up, "James and I are expecting another baby!"

Congradulations were passed around the table from the weasley's and Remus.

"wheres the baby?" asked Ron.

"its in her tummy Ron!" Fred said. Ron gasped.

"did she eat it?" the whole table laughed.

"no Ron I didn't eat the baby. It grows in my tummy." Lily said.

"Ron don't you remember before Ginny was born mums tummy got big?" bill asked.

"oh." Ron said still confused. Well his mummys tummy had gotten big and then gotten small again when Ginny was born.

The rest of dinner passed with pleasant conversation and laughing.

"so what do you guys think your going to name your baby?" Mrs. Weasley asked Rachel.

"well if it's a boy we were tossing around daniel or joseph. If it's a girl something along the lines of Ella or jannie." Rachel answered. Sirius made a face when she said jannie. "oh come on it's a nice name."

"but it sounds to much like jammie and we call James that sometimes so it would be much to confusing." Sirius stated as though he knew the whole argument by heart. Rachel rolled her eyes.

"sorry I asked." Mrs. Weasley muttered to herself.

"well if you give birth to her you can decide not to call her jannie but I like the name," Rachel said. This caused the couple to argue for a few more minutes while the others resumed other conversation.

After dinner James and lily found themselves lying on the couch while the twins watched a movie before bed.

"I cant believe were having another baby James." Lily said.

"me niether, I've gotten so used to it being just the four of us. Now there's gonna be another baby running around our house, plus Sirius and Rachel's baby." James said yawning.

"do you remember when we found out we were having the twins?" lily asked.

"when we found out you were pregnant or when we found out it was twins?" James asked.

"well there wasn't much difference as you fainted both times!" lily said through giggles.

"hey I was scared to death about having just one kid let alone two," James said defensively.

"I was scared too but I didn't faint." She said.

"well yeah, that's not the point." James muttered.

"you know you make a great father james." Lily said.

"and you make a great mother Lils." James said back.

"James are you scared this time?" lily asked shyly.

"well of course I'm scared but not nearly as bad as last time, fro one thing it's the second time, and I know what to expect at least a little, another thing, we're not right smack in the middle of a war annymore. Yes its gonna be kinda scary but at least we know what to expect this time." James responded.

"I guess that makes sense." Lily said. "I'm not as scared as last time either."

"mummy! Daddy!" lily and James looked at their twins, the movie seamed to have ended, and the two children sat on the couch with droopy eyelids.

"bed time." Lily said scooping up her daughter. James followed in suit and they tucked the twins in bed together.

A/N hey thanks again for reading please tell me what you think of my sugar sweetness chappy. Thanks

Twinesstar,

{1} for the full story on how Remus's wife died read chapter two of James alive.


	4. Trixie Madison Black

Chapter 4

A patronus dog appeared in lily and James room.

'_Rachel is having the baby! Come to saint mungos!" _lily sat up now 6 months pregnant as Sirius's voice faded away.

"James I'll head to the hospital while you get the twins ready." James pouted. "one Rachel wants me there not you James, and two I cant actually lift the twins anymore." She pointed down at her belly. James sighed in defeat and kissed lily before she changed out of pjs into sweats and a tee-shirt. lily waddled down the stairs to the fireplace. James sighed again and got up and changed. He then went to the twins room and picked them both up still in their jammies careful not to wake them. He aperated to the waiting room of the maternity ward. He laid them down on a couch and sat down on a chair himself.

Lily came into the waiting room about an hour later and sat down next to James.

"is Rachel doing ok?" James asked. "she is a few weeks early."

"yeah she's fine, of course when I asked her if she was ok she completely flipped out, saying of course she was not ok, that it was 4 in the bloody morning and she was having a baby." Lily said laughing at the memory.

"she's fine then." James concluded. Annie started to whimper quietly. Lily got up to get her.

A few hours later Sirius came bounding in the room. Lily and James followed him leaving the twins with Remus who had shown up not long after the potters had. The new parents offered them to be godparents,

"of course." James said at the same time lily bounced happily.

"yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" she squealed. "can I hold her?" Rachel handed her the tiny baby girl. "hi Trixie," she cooed.

The family came home from the hospital the next day. Rachel was carrying baby Trixie while Sirius carried the baby bag and carseat. They flooed back to their house. Rachel laid the sleeping newborn in a basanet in the kitchen and began to prepare lunch.

"sure you don't want any help?" Sirius asked.

"I'm sure." Rachel said thinking of the last time he had _helped _the kitchen had nearly burned. "don't want another near house fire." Sirius looked about to protest but thought better of it seeing as it was true, so he just sat down at the table waiting semi patiently watching his daughter sleep.

"what if I totally mess up her life?" Sirius asked Rachel as she sat down.

"you wont Sirius, you'll be a great daddy." Rachel said reasuringly.

"yeah well its not like I have much to go on seeing as my parents didn't really win the best parents award." Sirius muttered.

"no but you help out with harry and Annie all the time." Rachel said.

"and yet lily still doesn't trust me to watch them." He muttered.  
>"Sirius you have to agree that after what happened it would take some time to build back up the trust." Rachel said giggling slightly.<p>

"that was one time almost a whole year ago!" Sirius protested. "I didn't meen to let her get my wand!" he shuddered, Annie had stollen his wand and Sirius had found himself stuck to the ceiling watching the scene unravle in the kitchen as the twins made a huge mess with the flour and other food. "but I'm still worried, what if I make one wrong decision and totally mess up her life?"

"Sirius you know your not doing this alone, I'm here if her life gets messed up, - which it wont – it will be both our falts. You have me, and lily and James, and Remus. You don't need to worry Sirius." Rachel said. Trixie began to get fussy at this point so Rachel took her out to feed her.

"you wanna change her nappy, while I try and take a quick nap?" Rachel asked a few hours later. Sirius looked horror struck at the mere suggestion. "come on you'll be fine, I trust you." Sirius nodded nervously and took his daughter to the changing table. After spending a whole ten minutes trying to change her he finally succeded; sortof. He shrugged and walked back into the master bedroom, placed Trixie in the basanet, and fell down on the bed asleep almost instantly.

Trixie woke them up a few hours later.

"your turn." Rachel grummbled.

"but I just did it." Sirius grummbled back. Rachel sighed and got up to feed and change her daughter. After feeding her she took her to the changing table and laughed out loud. Sirius and the nappy upside down and backwards, and Rachel found this very funny.

"Sirius." She called, a second later she heard the creak of the bedsprings and footsteps.

"what?" he asked sleepily. Rachel laughed again.

"I'm going to show you exactly how to change a nappy corectly." Rachel said through laughing.

"I can change a nappy." Sirius argued. Rachel pointed down at Trixie's nappy. Sirius blushed, rolling her eyes Rachel showed Sirius exactly how to change it and had him try it himself.

"I got it!" he exclaimed after the fourth time of trying. Rachel laughedat his exitment.

"good job honey, now I'm going back to bed." Rachel said picking up Trixie and walking back to the bedroom.

About an hour later the small family was up and heading over to dinner at the potters house. Lily was making meetloaf and the twins were standing by their mother impatiently while she cooked.

"hello everybody!" Sirius anouched. The twins looked up running to Sirius.

"siwius!" they exclaimed. Rachel laid Trixie in a basanet in the kitchen and went to help lily with dinner while the guys played with the twins.

"so what have you three been doing all day?" lily asked.

"sleeping," Rachel answered. "taking care of Trixie, oh yeah and I spent a whole half hour teaching Sirius how to change a nappy properly." Lily giggled behind her hand.

"I had to teach James to do that, and I even he got it in ten minutes." Lily said though laughing. Rachel shrugged laughing as well.

"so hows your little baby doing." She asked.

"he's doing pretty good." Lily said. Rather loudly. Rachel raised her eyebrow until a James coughed from the other side of the kitchen, his cough though sound a lot like. 'or she'. Rachel giggled.

Dinner went well, lily sucesfully stopped a food fight that harry and Annie had been atempting to start. James and Sirius had pouted muttering about girls taking the fun out of life. Rachel and lily had both rolled their eyes. Boys.

A/N what did you guys think? Please review. Also I need help thinking of a name for lily's baby. Please tell me if you have any ideas.

Twinesstar.


	5. Amanda Rose Potter

Chapter 5

In the middle of august Lily and Rachel sat at the potter house with the twins and three month old Trixie. Lily was now nine months pregnant and expecting the baby any day. Rachel's sister Alexa was coming over for lunch later. Harry and Annie were now two years old and very exited for their new baby brother or sister.

"So did you pick out any names yet?" Rachel asked.

"A few but nothing set in stone yet." Lily answered.

"And are you going to tell me what they are?" Rachel asked as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Lily said starting to stand up,

"No I got it Lil." Rachel said walking towards the door.

"Rachel!" squealed a voice from the door.

"Alexa!" she said back hugging her sister. Alexa looked a lot like Rachel; they both had light brown slightly curly hair and dark blue eyes. Alexa though was a muggle while Rachel was obviously a witch. Much like lily and petunia. The difference though between the pairs of sisters was that though Alexa was of course jealous of Rachel's powers she did not sever the bonds of friendship with her sister as petunia had.

"Lily! It's good to see you!" Alexa exclaimed walking inside. Lily had spent a few summers at their house while still at Hogwarts. And Alexa being a little younger that the two girls always insisted on playing with them. Of course they were glad to play with her, and soon lily was also very good friends with Alexa.

"You too lexi!" lily exclaimed back. The three of them chatted over lunch and caught up with each other after not seeing each other for over a year.

Lily left to go to the bathroom and the two sisters chatted happily for a few minutes. Before they heard a cry from the bathroom.

"Lily!" Rachel yelled frantically. "Lily what's wrong?" lily waddled out of the bathroom.

"My water just broke. The baby is coming." She said.

"Let's get you to the hospital!" Alexa said urgently, as she was a nurse almost a doctor specifically in pregnancy and birthing.

"No here like harry and Annie. Now help me get upstairs." Rachel nodded and helped lily climb the staircase. She laid her on the master bed. Alexa started to get everything ready.

"Rachel! The kids!" lily said. "Take them to Molly's and bring molly here!" she barked. "And get James!"

Rachel left the room and walked down the stairs. She picked up Trixie and Annie in her arms.

"Harry I'll be right back ok?" harry nodded as Rachel aperated and came back a minute later picking up her godson. She aperated him to the burrow.

"Molly? Are you coming?" she asked.

"Yes. Yes. I'm coming." Molly came into the room carrying a basket full of towels and blankets. The two of them aperated back to lily's house. Upon arriving molly went straight up the stairs to lily's room. Rachel went to the fireplace and floo called James and Sirius who were at work. She stuck her head into the fire arriving a moment later in James head auror office. She looked around. It was empty.

"Crap!" she muttered. Just then a trainee auror came into the office. He saw Rachel's head and jumped.

"Um do you need something ma'am?" he asked.

"Yes I am looking for James potter and Sirius black its kind of an emergency." She said. At the work emergency the trainee jumped up and ran from the office, yelling for James and Sirius. They both came running in a moment later.

"Rachel? What's the emergency?" James asked frantically.

"Lily's having the baby." Rachel said. James immediately aperated home. Rachel pulled her head out of the fire in time to see James rushing up the stairs. She followed hearing the pop that meant her husband had arrived. Once upstairs Rachel say the hurry of activity molly was rushing down the stairs past her and inside the room lily lie on the bed while Alexa helped her through a contraction, James winced as lily squeezed his hand but said nothing knowing this would just make it worse for him adding lily's insults to the mix.

"Rachel go get more towels!" Alexa barked. Rachel nodded and went to the hall closet grabbing a pile of towels. She set them down where Alexa instructed, molly came back in the room with potions.

"I've got the pain relieving potion," she said handing the goblet to Alexa, who made lily drink it.

"Ok lily another contraction," she said, "I need you to push on this one." Lily did. And after a few more a sharp cry filled the room. Lily relaxed into the pillow as Rachel took the baby to clean. She brought the baby back to lily wrapped in a yellow blanket.

"Here you go," she said placing the tiny bundle in lily's arms. Lily smiled at her newborn.

"Hi baby." She cooed. Molly came back in the room along with Sirius. "Sirius can you get harry and Annie?" lily asked. Sirius nodded and left. The rest of the occupants of the room left to give lily and James time alone with their new baby.

Rachel came back in a few minutes later leading the two year old twins. James picked them up and brought them to the bed. Rachel silently left the room.

"Harry? Annie? Do you want to meet your new baby sister?" James asked. Both of them nodded, he lifted them so they could see the tiny bundle in lily's arms. They both smiled staring at the tiny baby girl. She had dark red hair like her mum, and hazel eyes like her dad. She blinked up at her siblings, Annie giggled.

"Me hold the baby?" she asked. Lily nodded pulling her into her lap as well so she could still keep hold on the baby while Annie held her. "Pretty." She cooed. After harry had, had a turn as well the rest of the family came in.

"Awww! She's so cute!" molly exclaimed softly. "What's her name?"

"Amanda Rose Potter." Lily said softly glancing down at her daughter.

"Can I hold her?" molly asked unable to contain herself. Lily nodded and handed her Amanda. Molly held her cooing for a few minutes before passing the baby girl back to her mother.

"Rachel? Sirius?" lily asked. "Would you like to be the godparents?"

Rachel beamed. "Of course we would!" she said in excitement opening her arms silently asking to hold her goddaughter. Lily smiled and handed the baby to her. She cooed softly for a few minutes before handing the baby to Sirius. He cooed to her as well. After passing Amanda around and much cooing and baby talk, Sirius and Rachel left to take care of their own baby girl. Harry and Annie had fallen asleep on the bed in James arms; lily leaned against James smiling at the newest arrival to the family. After a few minutes James took the twins to put them in bed, as he left lily got up to put Amanda in the basinet set up in their room. She put a fresh nappy on her and some jammies; she watched her sleep for a moment before James came in wrapping his arms around her. She leaned into his embrace, still smiling down at her new daughter.

Early the next morning Amanda's cry rang out waking the two parents. Lily sighed and pulled herself out of the bed and over to the basinet.

"Come here baby." She cooed softly picking up the baby rocking her softly. Amanda stopped crying as her mother rocked her carrying her over to the bed to feed her. After she finished James took Amanda back to the basinet.

"Night baby." He whispered softly to his newborn daughter, brushing her red hair out of her face. He smiled contently as Amanda slept peacefully, innocent and young not knowing the danger and sadness that the world had been during the war. He fell asleep knowing his daughter would grow up in a world not submerged in war. She could have a happy innocent childhood.

A/N I love the cuteness in this chappy, thank you so much to blueeyedprincess for the suggestion of rose, I had already had a name picked out when I got the review but it made a perfect middle name. Remember that like in my other stories if you are the fifth reviewer you will get a sneak peak on the next chappy. Suggestions are – as always – welcome.

Twinesstar.


	6. chocolate icecream

Chapter 6

The two small families sat playing and talking in the living room of the potter house. Rachel was lying on her tummy facing Trixie trying to get her to crawl. Trixie was almost 6 months and Rachel was encouraging her to crawl by having lots of time on the living room floor.

"Come here Trixie come to mummy." She said again clapping. Trixie blinked her silver grey eyes at her mother, and scooted forward on her belly. Rachel clapped loudest of everyone picking up her daughter smiling. Lily smiled holding two and a half month old Amanda. The roomed was laughing and clapping again when Rachel laid Trixie down on her tummy again, and she scooted more. They were still clapping when a loud bang echoed from the front room.

"Death eaters!" James said frantically peering around the doorframe. "Go! Go! Keep the kids safe!" he said to lily and Rachel. Lily looked worried but held tight to her daughter and son as she aperated to potter manor, as she aperated she saw flashes of light. This worried her; she really hoped James would be ok. Landing in the living room of potter manor she saw Rachel appear holding Trixie and Annie. They had all agreed that should something like this happen they would come here to potter manor, one of the most protected houses in the wizarding world.

Lily remembered a few days after coming home from the hospital, hearing about Alice and frank Longbottom being tortured to insanity. She held her daughter tightly, praying with every fiber in her being that nothing of that sort would happen to James or Sirius.

"Welcome back mistress lily." Said the house elf milly one of the three house elves that was at potter manor. All three of them were very well taken care of with clean towels and kind treatment; they had even offered to pay them for their work. But the house elves would take no paying.

"Thank you milly would you please set up the rooms on the second floor." Lily asked. Milly nodded disappearing.

Lily and Rachel talked very little both very worried about their husbands. Lily fed the kids lunch and put on a movie for them to watch. She and Rachel sat on the couches waiting. Finally after waiting for more than an hour. James and Sirius came bearing news. Lily gasped when she saw her husband, he was covered in blood and cuts were all over his face. Rachel gasped as well as Sirius looked very similar. Both women went to hug their husbands.

"Are you alright?" lily asked frantically.

"Yeah just a few scratches," James said.

"What happened? Who was there? What did they want?" lily asked frantically.

"well as to who was there, obviously it was death eaters, they were wearing masks so we couldn't tell who they were at first, but one of them, Rowle I think got his mask blown off when he got stunned. As to what they wanted, I have no idea." James explained the best he could. Lily hugged him again,

"Thank goodness you're alright." She mumbled into his shirt.

"Master James, mistress lily," said the one of the other house elves lucky. "We have prepared the rooms on the second floor. May I ask how long you is staying?"

"Thank you lucky and we don't know how long we will be staying but at least a while as our house has been attacked." James said to the elf. She nodded and disappeared.

"Now let's tend to those cuts." Lily insisted summoning some potions from the potion store in the kitchen. She fixed up the boy's cuts, and then snuggled up to James while Rachel did the same to Sirius. The two couples fell asleep on the couches to be woken a few hours later by the two youngest members of the family. Lily pulled herself up at the same time as Rachel did. Walking to the basinet she pulled out her crying daughter.

"Come here Mandy." She said softly scooping up her child to feed and change her. She walked towards the second floor bedrooms where the baby nursery was located. After changing her nappy she set her in the basinet she had once used for Annie when they had lived in potter manor, before they had been told to go into hiding. After Voldemort attacked they stayed in the house in godrics hallow because it would be easier on the twins to stay in one place. Not to mention that Rachel and Sirius had bought the house next door. She sighed remembering the memories she had of the large house, visiting James parents when they had started dating, coming here after her honey moon, bringing the twins home, watching the twins begin to crawl. She smiled and left the room, she walked into the kitchen smiling as she saw James rummaging through the fridge.

"Find anything good?" she asked. James jumped.

"Oh hey Lils." He said pulling out a carton of ice-cream.

"James its one in the morning. Why are you getting out ice-cream?" lily asked.

"Because I'm hungry and can't cook to save my life." He answered sticking his spoon in the chocolate. "Want some?"

"Why do you have to get ice-cream though?" she asked ignoring his last question.

"Because I like ice-cream." He answered simply. "Remember when we would get up in the middle of the night and eat ice-cream because neither of us felt like cooking?"

"Yeah when we first got married." Lily said laughing. She had not been the best cook back then and she still wasn't the best, but she was still loads better than James ever would be.

"Yes exactly." He said smiling. "So would you like to join me in eating ice-cream?"

Lily laughed and sat down on the counter. "Yes please." James smiled and put a big spoonful in her opened mouth. They both smiled remembering when they used to do this all the time. The couple continued to eat their way through the whole carton of chocolate ice-cream laughing and joking about the memories from when they were younger. Hogwarts years, when they first started dating, early marriage, and of course they kids. Lily had more fun that night having time to just be herself with her husband than she had had in a long time.

A/N ok so I am really, really, bad at writing bad situations, so I couldn't make it to horrible, and I added a lot of cute fluffiness to the end. Please remember to review and tell me what you think, and give me any idea you might have. And as always if you are the fifth reviewer you will get a sneak peak of the next chappy.

Twinesstar.


	7. sugar cookies with sprinkles

Chapter 7

About two months later the potters and the blacks were still at potter manor. James and Sirius had finished construction only days before but the families had decided to stay at potter manor for Christmas. Trixie was nearly eight months and though she could scoot on her tummy she rarely bothered, preferring to simply be carried. The family was sitting on the floor trying to coax her into crawling for real. She held herself on her hands and knees looking stubbornly at them as though she knew what they wanted and was determined not to crawl.

"Come on Trixie," Sirius patted his knees. "Come to dada." She just stared at him.

"Come on Sirius. Come help me bring lunch in and you can try to get her to crawl later." Rachel said, the twins were complaining about being hungry and the food was getting cold. Sirius sighed and pulled himself off the floor to help his wife with lunch. He walked into the kitchen and picked up a tray of plates when something started tugging on his pant leg. Sirius jumped nearly dropping the tray. Until he looked down at his smiling daughter.

"How did you get in here?" he asked levitating the tray with his wand and picking up his daughter. "Rachel did you see that?"

"See what?" she asked walking back in the room taking the levitating tray from the air. "And if you weren't gonna help –"

"No I was helping, but Trixie crawled into the kitchen all by herself." Sirius said bouncing his daughter.

"She did?" Rachel said her eyes lighting up happily. Sirius nodded. Rachel talked happily over lunch about how Trixie could finally crawl. Lily smiled looking down at her almost five month old daughter. She may have gotten her mothers hair color, but it was just as stubborn as her father's and brother's. Annie was the complete opposite, with raven black hair that was smooth as silk and lay perfectly on her head.

Later that night James was having trouble getting the twins to sleep.

"Please lie down in your bed Annie." He said exasperated as Annie jumped up and down in her new Christmas jamies. Harry was running around the room avoiding his dad who had given up on trying to get him to put his new jamies on. Lily walked in the room after putting Amanda to bed and smirked at her husband's predicament.

"Need some help?" she asked. James smiled sheepishly at her.

"That would be nice." He said. Lily rolled her eyes and walked over to her two year old daughter. She picked her up and laid her down in her bed.

"Go to sleep squirt or you won't get presents for Christmas tomorrow." Lily said, Annie snuggled deeper into her pillows and closed her eyes tightly pretending to sleep. "Same with you buddy." Lily said scooping harry in her arms and changing him with little problem. After both twins were in bed lily walked smugly out of the room.

James walked down the stairs after her, confused. How did women do it? Lily was the only one who could get the twins to behave and same with Rachel and baby Trixie. Oh well. He thought to himself. At least he knew they could be controlled by someone. Walking into the kitchen he saw lily taking the plate of cookies from on top of the fridge. They had been up there since dinner when Sirius and the twins had snuck them.

"Those cookies sure look yummy." James said coming up behind her. She jumped slightly.

"They sure do." She responded. James reached around her and picked up a cookie. "Hey those cookies are for Santa." Lily laughed snaking his hand. The potters always had Santa come to bring the presents because lily's grandparents were American and she had had quite a few Christmases in America with them. She had told James about it when they were at Hogwarts for Christmas in 7th year. He had simply loved the idea of Santa and when they were married he insisted that their children would have Santa come. And leave Santa cookies.

"We have more in the cabinet, Santa can have those ones." James said taking a bite out of the cookie. Lily raised her eyebrow. "What? I like your sugar cookies!" he defended himself. Lily laughed; the only thing she could cook really well was her grandmother's special sugar cookies. "But next time you should put more sprinkles on them." He said smiling as she smacked his arm gently.

"Don't eat them all James." She said as he stuffed his fourth one in his mouth. He smiled sheepishly and the two of them chatted happily before going to bed, knowing they would be woken up early the next morning by the twins.

And sure enough they were harry and Annie were jumping on their bed yelling happily about Christmas.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Annie yelled hitting her parents' heads with a pillow. Harry did the same thing with another pillow.

"We're up! We're up!" James mumbled scooping up his two children. "Come on down stairs and let mummy sleep." Both children slipped from his arms and ran across the room still yelling happily about Christmas. Once down stairs in the kitchen James was very please to smell Rachel's famous cinnamon rolls. He served himself a plate and a plate for both of the twins. The three are their breakfast messily while Rachel watched in amusement. Lily came down stairs not long after with Amanda.

"Happy Christmas!" she said to the room. She sat down her daughter in her highchair.

"Happy Christmas!" was echoed back. Lily smiled and lifted up her messy daughter. She summoned a wash rag and cleaned Annie's face before moving on to Harry's, then James.

"You know James." She said. "You would think you could eat like a man not a two year old."

"But they did it first." He said defiantly.

Lily sighed. "They have and excuse. They actually are two years old." James shrugged and scooped up the twins heading for the living room where the tree and presents were. Lily followed holding Amanda and Rachel with Trixie. Sirius came last.

They had a wonderful time opening presents. James had gotten new quidditch jamies, lots of honey dukes chocolate, and a new chess set. Lily had gotten books, candy, and lots of baby clothes for Amanda. Rachel got candy, baby clothes, and jewelry from Sirius. Sirius got new quidditch jamies as well, along with candy, and a chudly cannons hat. Harry got a stuffed stag, and lots of toys. Annie got the same along with a stuffed doe. Trixie got toys and a lynx and black dog plush toys.

The families ate a yummy lunch with Christmas ham, homemade bread, and apple pie. Remus came shortly after lunch bearing gifts of chocolate – receiving even more than he brought due to the fact that everyone was familiar with his chocolate obsession. They all had a great time laughing and eating sugar cookies, lily and Rachel smiled happily as the children began to get sleepy; James, Remus, and Sirius were dancing and singing horribly to Christmas carols. Harry walked over to his dad who was still dancing badly and James picked him up dancing with him as well. Sirius took his lead and picked up Trixie, Remus picked up Annie and all six of them danced around the living room laughing.

"Bedtime!" lily announced earning groans and whines in protest from the marauders. "Not you three! The children!" she snapped. They instantly became happier and helped in getting the kids to bed.

Once the kids were sleeping soundly the five adults sat on the couches talking and eating the rest of the sugar cookies and chocolate ice-cream. They reminisced in the fun they had had at Hogwarts, thinking of the most ridiculous truth or dare games they had played all through seventh year – when lily could actually be in the same room as James without cursing him into oblivion.

_Flash back _

"_Ok truth or dare… Rachel?" Sirius said. Rachel sighed, this was getting old, her boyfriend always insisted that when playing truth or dare he dared her to kiss him. Again. Its not that she didn't want him to kiss her but he did it every turn. _

"_Truth," she said. _

_Sirius pouted while Rachel nodded with a smug look on her face. "Fine, are you annoyed at me asking you to snog me?" _

_Rachel rolled her eyes. "At the moment, yes every time we play we snog on every one of your turns and at the moment I would rather not." She said stubbornly. Sirius pouted again. A few more people went and then it was James turn. Lily groaned, she had been dreading his turn since they started playing. _

"_Lily. Truth or dare?" he asked. Lily sighed. _

"_Truth." She said. _

"_Fine," he said. "Why won't you go out with me?" he asked. _

"_For the millionth time potter I won't go out with you because you are an arrogant toe rag who only cares about quidditch and ruffling your stupid hair to attract girls." Lily said a bit angrily. James pouted for a moment but waited very impatiently for his next turn. _

"_Truth or dare lily?" he asked. Lily sighed. _

"_Dare." She said instantly regretting the choice when she saw James smirking. _

"_I dare you to kiss me. For more than five seconds." He said. Lily glared at him, he just continued to smirk. _

"_Fine!" She grumbled, she walked up to him and kissed him hard on the lips, she then melted like a stick of butter. She continued to kiss him; he was surprised at first but then kissed her back. They broke apart when Sirius coughed loudly. _

"_Still denying feeling for me Evans?" James asked after the game was over and everyone else had gone to bed. _

"_I'm trying." She said. _

"_Why do you not want to like me? Am I really that bad?" he asked. _

"_No. it's just that I'm so used to being on opposite sides, not being together without the fighting." Lily admitted staring at her feet. _

"_That might be weird for you, but I have been waiting for you to kiss me like that since I saw you the first time." He said kissing her lightly on the cheek and walking up to the boys' dorm. Lily smiled and walked up to the girls' dormitory after a few minutes. _

_End of flashback. _

A/N thanks again for reading, I hope this wasn't too mushy for anyone. But I really like sweetness so I had to put that in there. Please review.

Twinesstar.


	8. flying food, pink hair, and rabbits

Chapter 8

June came fast after Christmas was over. The potters and the blacks had both moved back into their own houses. Amanda was nearly nine months and was crawling at a very fast speed. Trixie was just getting near her first birthday and Sirius and Rachel were sitting in the living room trying to get her to walk.

"Come on Trixie!" Rachel said patting her lap. "Come to mummy baby." Sirius held his hands at her sides ready to catch her should she fall. But she didn't, she took a few shaky steps in her mum's direction and Rachel scooped her into her arms spinning her around happily.

"Sirius! Our baby can walk Sirius!" she squealed happily still spinning Trixie. Sirius looked equally delighted and scooped up his daughter in his arms.

"And right on her birthday too." Sirius said happily as she poked his nose. "Happy birthday baby girl." He said kissing her curly black hair. Trixie giggled and squirmed out of her fathers arms back onto the floor. Walking shakily over to her mother. They were both still clapping when the potters came from next door.

"Hey guys look whose finally walking." James said walking through the back door carrying Amanda in his arms. Lily followed holding a hand of each of the twins.

"Yes just a few minutes ago actually." Rachel said standing up to greet them.

"Awww!" lily whined. "We missed her first steps?"

"Yeah sorry," Sirius. "But I bet she'll do it again for you."

"Come to aunty lily Trixie." Lily cooed holding her arms out to the baby girl. She blinked at her godmother and walked towards her shakily. She giggled as she fell into her godmother's arms. "Happy birthday baby girl!" she giggled again gabbering in baby talk.

"Well let's get going." Sirius said. "We don't want to be late for dinner."

"Your right we really should get going, did you say we were going to the muggle café down the street?" lily asked.

"Yeah we were planning on walking since it's a pretty nice day." Rachel said taking her daughter from lily. "And after dinner we're gonna go to the park."

"Sounds like a plan." James said conjuring two prams. Lily put the twins in the double and Amanda in the other. "Let's go." The two small families walked out the front door and down the street. Sitting in outside the small café eating, the two families ate and talked happily, Trixie and Amanda jabbered in baby talk while the almost three year old twins made huge messes.

"Uh-oh." Annie said happily as her meatballs stuck to the umbrella above them.

"wa- was that accidental magic?" lily asked to no one in particular.

"I think so." Rachel said watching wide eyed at her goddaughter who was not levitating her peas. Lily squealed and picked up her daughter spinning her around.

"Good job baby," she kissed her daughters head. Annie indeed looked very proud of herself. "Your first accidental magic." She whispered in her ears so no muggles would overhear.

"The food was floating mummy." She said laughing.

"Yes it was baby, but you need to not make the food float around the muggles. Ok?" lily said quietly. Annie nodded. They all walked to the park after that, the twins played on the slides while Rachel and lily pushed the younger girls in the swings.

"Do you think it's to early for her to be showing signs of magic?" lily asked looking over at her daughter sliding down the slide.

"Nah, mum says I started showing signs of magic at four. Everyone is different." Rachel said.

"What kind of magic did you do at four? I didn't start showing signs until I was seven," lily said.

"Well I assume you had no one you were particularly annoyed with." Rachel said. Lily looked at her strongly. "Lexi was bothering me and like any four year old witch I… turned her hair pink." Lily laughed. "What was your first accidental magic?"

"As I said I was seven and I was trying to do a muggle magic trick, and ended up making my rabbit actually vanish." Lily laughed.

"Yeah mine was pretty erratic just when I was angry or scared." Rachel said. "At least at first anyways, once I started to understand it better I could control it, mum and dad never really liked it, they thought it was strange, abnormal. Until I got my Hogwarts letter. Then we understood." Rachel said remembering her letter. Her mother had replaced her confused look for one of complete understanding of Rachel's abilities. Lexi had been happy as well; at first anyway. She had asked professor McGonagall – the lady that had come to tell Rachel – if she was a witch too. Only to be bitterly disappointed that she wasn't. She hadn't spoken to Rachel until she was about to leave on the train. After a huge hug she forgave her older sister.

"Yeah my letter wasn't much of a surprise," lily said snapping Rachel from her thoughts.

"Because Sev told you?" Rachel asked. Lily nodded.

"He told me all about this world, anything I wanted to know. I was stuck waiting for the letter, unlike most other muggleborns who have no idea." Lily said.

"Unless their older siblings went and they know they can do magic." Rachel said with a smirk.

"That's why I said most you smart alack." Lily laughed. Rachel just shrugged. Trixie started to get fussy then and the two families made their ways home. Amanda fell asleep on the way home and the twins tried their hardest to stay awake with droopy eyelids. Lily set harry down on his sleeping cot and kissed his forehead near his scar. Wishing once again that she could have prevented the scar from ever being on her own son's head. She shook herself, and walked to her older daughters sleeping cot knowing she did all she could and more to keep her children alive. She kissed Annie's hair and walked into the pale pink nursery where her youngest child slept. Stoking her red hair she drifted into the memories of the past; both good and bad. But mostly good: bringing the twins home from the hospital that first night, watching them grow, finding out she was going to have another baby, bringing Amanda home, and all the wonderful memories in between. Knowing without a doubt that they were worth anything she could give them. Worth her life if she had to give it. She knew she would let nothing hurt her children. Not if she could help it. Lily fell asleep that night knowing these things. Knowing that she loved her children.

A/N what do you think, please review. Remember fifth reviewer gets a sneak peak. And I know it was a little mushy at the end but I liked it so I hope you do too. But if you don't that's ok too. Thank you for reading.

Twinesstar.


	9. sugar cookies at the ministry

Chapter 9

A year and aproximently 2 months later.

"James comes on you promised you would take the kids to work today for the twins' birthday." Lily said pleadingly as she fed Amanda her breakfast.

"Alright, I know I'll take them." James said rubbing his head. Today was not the best day to take the kids in; the ministry – mostly the auror department – was going berserk thanks to the death eater attacks the day before. But he had promised and lily had work at saint mungos as a healer today. She usually found a sitter if Rachel wasn't available but Rachel had made plans for the day since Sirius was taking Trixie and lily had no time to find a sitter.

"Thank you," lily said pulling her lime green healer robes over her normal clothes. "Now I am going to be late if I don't leave now." She kissed him on the cheek quickly before hugging the newly four year old twins harry and Annie and patting Amanda's head. "Bye buddy, squirt, pumpkin!"

"By mummy!" yelled the two older kids. Lily blew them all kisses and disaperated.

"Alright ready to come with daddy to work kidos?" James asked. The twins nodded enthusiastically. "Well then let's go!" he scooped up Amanda and took the twins hands. They walked over to Sirius's house, "hey Sirius! Would you give me a hand and take one of the twins for me?"

"Sure." Sirius said taking harry. The two groups aperated to the ministry.

"Daddy? What do you do for work?" Annie asked. Her conversation skills were more developed than Harry's. Harry had done much more accidental magic than Annie though even if his were much less controlled. Annie was able to control her magic so it didn't often come out unless she was very upset. Harry though had little control over his magic yet. Amanda was almost two and never wanted to be carried. She simply preferred to walk everywhere. Trixie had turned two nearly two months earlier she was very talkative in her adorable baby talk. Rachel had just found out she was pregnant again and was having an appointment with her healer the next week.

"Well daddy works as an auror, it's kind of like a police officer for the muggles." James explained.

"Like on the video?" Annie asked. James nodded. Harry and Annie had been watching lots of muggle children's videos that explained muggle jobs. Arthur weasley had found these very interesting one time when their family had come over for dinner, they could not pry him from the TV until they left.

"This is daddy's office." He said leading the kids upstairs with Sirius to the auror headquarters on level two and into an office a bit bigger than the tiny cubicles. Sirius followed picking up his two year old daughter and sitting her down in a chair in front of James desk. James let the twins sit in his big chair at his desk and took another seat near the side of the room holding his almost two year old daughter.

"Are you hungry Mandy?" Amanda shook her head. James raised his eyebrow. "Not even if I told you we had cookies?" all four children's eyes lit up.

"Cookies?" harry and Annie said at the same time. James smirked and pulled a box of cookies from his desk drawer. All the children started bouncing impatiently as James passed out the batch of sugar cookies.

"Yummy!" Amanda said through a mouthful of cookie. James laughed and summoned a washcloth to clean the crumbs off her face before moving to the other kids.

"Mr. Black?" a trainee auror asked. "Kingsley needs you for an informational meeting in room 6." Sirius nodded.

"Can you watch Trixie for me while I go to this meeting?" Sirius asked.

"Of course," James said tossing his best mate a cookie. He caught it and ducked out for his meeting, as he left another auror came in.

"Hey James." He said sitting down.

"Hey Jackson." James said, Jackson Mathews was one of the aurors who had started around the same time he and Sirius had.

"Are these your kids?" Jackson asked looking at the four toddlers in the room.

"These three are," James said pointing at harry, Annie, and Amanda. "This one is Sirius's" he said pointing at Trixie.

"Are you an ayyor too?" Annie asked.

"You mean an auror?" Jackson asked. Annie nodded. "Yes I am an auror."

"So you catch bad peoples?" harry asked. Jackson laughed.

"Yes I catch bad people." Annie looked very interested.

"Did you catch one today?" she asked.

"Not today but we did catch a few yesterday," the twins leaned forward exited. Jackson sighed and launched into a trilling – and totally over exaggerated – story about the attack and capture the day before. James watched in amusement as the twins hung on to his every word. Trixie and Amanda had started playing with toys not as interested in the story as the twins seamed to be. James sat to do some work while the kids were entertained, he wouldn't have much time if he didn't. Sirius came back more than an hour later, just after Jackson had left.

"Hey guys!" he said walking in the office.

"Daddy!" yelled the little girl running to her father.

"Hey baby girl." Hey said scooping up his tiny daughter. "What've you been doing since daddy went to a meeting?"

"Toys!" she said happily pointing at the pile by the desk.

"Sounds like fun. Anyone up for lunch down in the food court?" Sirius asked.

"I was gonna take them down if you didn't show up in the next ten minutes." James said checking his watch. They all walked to the lift to take them back to the main level where the big food court was located. The children stared around them at all the other ministry workers, Annie was in no way afraid to say hi to everyone that got close enough. James pulled them to a table while Sirius got their food. Chicken nuggets and apple juice for Amanda and Trixie, grilled cheese and cran-raspberry juice for Annie, and a peanut butter sandwich for harry. They all ate happily before returning to James office to play until he had finished work. After work they all headed home for dinner. Lily was already there and ran to hug her children as soon as they came through the fireplace.

"Mummy!" the three of them yelled running for their mum.

"I missed you guys, did you have fun?" she asked. They all nodded before Annie launched into an explanation of their day.

A/N what do you all think? Please leave me a review to tell me. Also any ideas for my story? Ideas for baby names? Please give any suggestions you have I will be glad of the ideas. And remember the fifth person to review gets a sneak peak. Thank you for reading.

Twinesstar.


	10. cookies for breakfast?

Chapter 10

A few weeks later Amanda was getting ready for her second birthday. Rachel was about three and a half months pregnant and due in February. Trixie had been extra clingy since they had told her about the baby, and Rachel was a bit concerned.

"don't worry about it, she's just not used to sharing mummy and daddy's attention, she knows that you two are going to be super busy once the baby comes. It's normal." Lily said to her.

"But harry and Annie didn't have that problem." Rachel said back,

"That's because they're already used to sharing mummy and daddy with each other." Rachel nodded, she was still worried about Trixie being so clingy but she hoped once the baby actually came she wouldn't cling as much. "Now do you want to come shopping with me for Amanda's present?" lily asked. Rachel smiled and they both flooed to diagon alley. After browsing the stores for a while they ended up picking out a set of witch dolls for Amanda. They then went to have lunch at muggle café before doing more shopping in muggle London. They both needed muggle clothing that wasn't sold in diagon alley. After shopping they both headed home to find a full fledged food fight in the potter kitchen. They both stifled laughter at the scene, both Trixie and Amanda were covered head to toe in pudding and mashed potatoes, while the twins had Sirius and James pinned under them as they shoved the last of the mashed potatoes and pie into their faces. The two younger girls were laughing at their dads.

"Excuse me, but would someone like to explain what is going on in here?" Rachel asked eyeing the mess.

"well I was warming up the mashed potatoes from last night but no one seamed to like them so they." He pointed at the little girls who tried to look incident. "Threw them at my face." Sirius said.

"Then the twins joined in and it became a full food fight, then they pinned us down and well you saw what happened next." James said pulling his daughter off of him and standing up. Lily rolled her eyes and took Amanda from her highchair; she took her upstairs and gave her a quick bath.

"There you go," she said wrapping the towel around the almost two year old. "All clean." Amanda smiled angelically, her red hair messy as ever. Thankfully the longer it got the less messy it was. Lily smiled and pulled the brush gently through her daughter's hair, "ready for jamies?" lily asked, Amanda nodded as her mum pulled her pj shirt over her head then slid on the bottoms. Back down the stairs lily found that James had successfully managed to get the twins into jamies and they were now watching a movie. Lily put Amanda down next to them, and sat next to James herself.

"So did you have a fun day?" James asked.

"I did thank you, what about you?" lily responded. James smiled and the couple talked for a while until the movie was over and all the kids were fast asleep. James picked up the twins and lily took Amanda. After tucking the kids in bed lily and James fell asleep themselves.

The next day lily and James woke to the strange phenomenon of relative quietness. Lily went to check on the kids, the twins were strongly asleep, odd. She then went to Amanda's room to see the newly two year old sprawled out on the floor reading a picture book.

"Mummy!" she yelled happily jumping up to great her mother.

"Good morning birthday girl." Lily said hugging her daughter.

"I two now!" Amanda said happily. Lily nodded.

"Yes you are baby; you're two whole years old." Lily scooped her up and walked from the room and down the stairs. "And what does the birthday girl want for breakfast?"

Amanda thought for a moment before responding. "Cookies." Lily looked at the little girl. Amanda just smiled angelically.

"Amanda you know we cant have cookies for breakfast." Lily said as Amanda pouted batting her eyes pleadingly. Lily just shook her head. "How about chocolate chip pancakes?" Amanda's face lit up and she nodded vigorously.

The twins came down not long later to the smell of chocolate chip pancakes; - one of the only things lily could cook besides sugar cookies.

"Good morning." Lily said putting plates of food in front of the twins as they sat down.

"Yummy mummy." Annie said through a mouthful of pancakes. Harry laughed. Lily smiled at her daughters joke and continued to make the pancakes. James came down yawning not long after immediately devouring his pancakes.

"Happy birthday pumpkin." James said to Amanda as he finished his breakfast.

A minute later Trixie came running in the back door.

"Mandy!" she yelled running for her god sister gift bag in hand. "Happy birthday!" she said giving Amanda the gift bag. inside was a small white music box with pink flowers painted on it , Amanda opened it and the little box and it began to sing 'you are my sunshine' Amanda's favorite song. Lily sang the song to her when she was scared or couldn't sleep. Amanda hugged her friend and they both bolted up the stairs to put the music box in Amanda's room. Sirius and Rachel walked in the back door.

"Where did the girls go?" Sirius asked looking around and not seeing his daughter and goddaughter.

"They went up stairs to put the music box in Amanda's room." Lily answered, Rachel smiled.

"So she liked it?" she asked.

"Yes she loved it; the song was a great choice by the way." Lily said wiping the chocolate off her children's faces.

"Trixie picked out the music box and I found the one with that song," Rachel said sitting at the table and wolfing down the pancakes.

"Mummy!" Amanda yelled happily running down the stairs. Lily smiled and scooped up her daughter as she ran to her arms.

"Hey birthday girl!" lily said planting a kiss on her daughters red haired head. Amanda squirmed away giggling. Trixie ran over to her dad and sat down on his lap. He pulled her into a big hug kissing her black curls.

Later that day they were joined by the weasley's and Remus for a late summer's picnic by the lake. Amanda loved the lake, they went there camping and fro picnics a lot in the summer. They owned a cabin but for small picnics they just set up a blanket by the lake. She loved when Lily would take her over to the lake side and the two of them would carefully dip their feet in the water, she would sing you 'are my sunshine' when they came later at night. James always brought squirt guns, and I was very fun to watch the marauders squirt each other with water. Since it was a muggle lake they had to do everything by hand; no magic what so ever, Amanda loved watching James and Sirius get frustrated by the muggle ways, and lily and Rachel doing just fine with no magic. The families ate and played for hours until after dark most of the kids had fallen asleep. Sirius smiled down at the little girl in his lap, fast asleep. He got up gently so as not to wake Trixie. Rachel followed in suit.

"See you later guys." Rachel said softly as they aperated home.

"Well I guess we better get going as well." James said scooping up the almost sleeping twins into his arms. Lily stood already holding a sleeping Amanda.

"No go home." Annie mumbled sleepily. "Stay here." James chuckled.

"Sorry squirt but its late we better get going," Annie mumbled something else but she was too far into sleep for anyone to understand what she said. James smiled and the small family disaperated home. Lily lay her sleeping two year old in her cot.

"Goodnight sunshine." She said softly kissing her red hair. Amanda smiled in her sleep, snuggling closer to her stuffed hippogriff. Lily smiled and left the room, she peered into Annie's room she was sleeping peacefully hugging her stuffed doe. Harry was in his room also fast asleep holding his stuffed stag.

Rachel came back from tucking Trixie in and sat down at the edge of her bed. Sirius came up behind her rubbing her sore shoulders.

"Thank you." Rachel said relaxing into his arms. He just smiled to himself and stroked her brown hair. Rachel fell asleep quickly after that perfectly happy.

A/N so same old routine. Leave a review and tell me what you think of this chappy. I know its been a while since I posted the last chapter but I have been really busy especially with the stupid state testing – which by the way sucks, especially if you get done in 45 minutes and have like nothing to do for two whole hours since the stupid principal wont let us draw just read, (that by the way includes writing so I was stuck in my math class room for two hours either reading or sleeping, not being able to work on my story) plus my mom was busy doing errands so I had to stay at a stupid after school club with nothing to do from 3:30 to five, (just because I still don't have a house key) – (sorry about the rambling but I have been pretty frustrated) anyway we also have a boy with autism and his mom staying at our house from Idaho while they get a service dog from here. So same old thing goes the fifth reviewer – or in this case tenth – gets a sneak peak of the next chappy. Suggestions are as always welcome at any time.

Twinesstar.


	11. falling through

Chapter 11

Rachel sat on the couch watching her newly three year old daughter play. She was 8 months pregnant and could barely do anything. Sirius and James had left on an auror mission that morning and wouldn't be back for a few more days. Rachel looked up as green flames appeared in the fireplace.

"Hey Rachel thought you might need some company." Lily said leading her three kids into the house.

"Thanks Lil, I am extremely bored and I can do absolutely nothing, not to mention it's the middle of July and I'm burning up, and I'm really hungry but I don't feel like getting up." Rachel grumbled. Lily just smiled.

"I know how you feel." She said. "I'll make you something to eat, what do you want?"

Rachel thought for a moment. "Can I have some chocolate frosting spread on pizza with – oh never mind ill just make it myself." Rachel said getting herself up from the couch, lily gave her a strange look as she walked into the kitchen. She came out a minute later with her chocolate frosting covered pizza topped with sliced pickles and oranges. Lily did her best not to look sick at the dish. Rachel on the other had sat down on the couch and dug in.

The two women talked for a few hours before lily had to leave.

"Do you want me to watch Trixie for a few days until the guys get back?" lily asked.

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"Well I was just thinking if something happened you wouldn't be able to pick her up or help her." Lily reasoned. This did not make Rachel very happy.

"I can take care of my daughter quite fine on my own thank you very much!" she said angrily taking Trixie's hand and leading her to the other room. Lily sighed and took her three children back home. Of course Rachel would react that way, she should have known. Rachel was always offended if she though someone was underestimating her abilities to take care of her daughter. And being pregnant would only make her see reason less, make her react hostile instead of thinking things through.

Lily fed her children a dinner of mac-n-cheese and sliced ham. All three of them ate without complaint. Lily then put on a movie for them. They watched until they fell asleep.

* * *

><p>As soon as lily left Rachel felt instantly bad, she knew lily was just trying to help. But she hated when people thought she couldn't take care of her own child. But then again lily had a point, what if something bad really did happen and she couldn't save her baby because she was unable to carry her? But that wouldn't happen. Trixie was perfectly safe eating dinner across the table from her. Nothing would happen to her baby.<p>

* * *

><p>Rachel woke in the middle of the night to a horrid thunder storm. She tried to go back to sleep but the thunder was too loud, and the lightning to bright. So Rachel sat up, looking around the room she saw a small figure in the doorway.<p>

"Mummy?" the little black haired figure asked looking frightened.

"Come here baby girl its ok," Rachel said as the three year old raced across the room to her mother's arms. Trixie buried herself into her mother's shoulder; Rachel rocked her back and forth in an awkward fashion with Trixie on the side.

"Can I stay hewr?" Trixie asked a few minutes later missing her R's.

"Yes baby but you have to try to sleep." Rachel said laying back down. The worst of the thunder storm seamed to have passed so she would try to get some sleep.

Rachel drifted off waking about an hour later to a deafening crash. She heard a faint scream in the distance and instinctively looked to the side of the bed next to her. She panicked when she saw that Trixie wasn't there.

"Trixie!" she called loudly, hurrying from the room as fast as she could. She ran into her daughter's room to see most of the large tree that usually occupied the front yard sticking through a giant hole in the wall, Trixie was flattened up against another wall by one of the tree's limbs.

"Mummy!" she screamed trying to push the tree limb away from her in an attempt to get to her mother.

"Don't move baby ill get you out of there!" Rachel called to the terrified toddler. She then attempted to maneuver herself through the room to the other wall. But the gaps in which to get there were much too small for her to get through with her pregnant belly. "It's no use!" she moaned. "Lily was right I can't even take care of my own daughter in this state!" then it struck her. Lily! She sent a talking partonus to her best friend asking frantically for help.

"Rachel!" she heard a worried voice a minute later. Lily had asked a muggle neighbor that had been outside to watch the children while she helped Rachel. "Rachel where are you?"

"In Trixie's room!" she called over the howling wind. She heard lily's hurried footsteps up the stairs, when she saw the tree she gasped.

"Don't worry Trixie I'll get you out!" she called maneuvering herself through the spaces that Rachel couldn't. When she got to the toddler she saw that Trixie was pinned to the wall. First lily tried pulling her out but Trixie just screamed. Lily saw that she was pinned much too tight and her leg was bleeding heavily. This worried lily, because if she tried to move the tree by magic it could end up making the situation even worse.

"Its ok Trixie I'll get you out of here I promise." Lily said taking the three year olds hand and trying to think of a way to free her. "Trixie? Can you wiggle yourself free by going under the branch?" Trixie wiggled getting a little further down, but she was still stuck. She looked at her godmother with scared pleading eyes and lily made up her mind. On one hand using magic might cause the situation to worsen on the other hand if she didn't do something now then Trixie would lose too much blood. So lily decided that the only solution was to risk it and use magic.

"alright Trixie I'm going to move the branch by magic, I want you to hold onto me as tight as you can in case the floor falls in ok?" lily said. Trixie nodded and held tightly to her godmother. Lily used her free hand to blast the branch away pulling Trixie closer to her as soon as the branch pinning her was gone, and as she feared the small explosion caused the floor to fall right where Trixie had been only a second before. She heard Rachel scream from the other side of the room, lily decided not to risk it and levitated Trixie over to her mother. Rachel hugged her daughter tightly crying in both relief and fright at the sight of Trixie's mangled leg. Lily began to make her way back over the ruined room carefully. But just before she got to the edge of the room the floor fell through.

A/N I am very sorry I left you on a cliffy – sort of – but I've never done a real cliffy before so I kinda wanted to try it out. But don't worry I wont leave you waiting for long. I plan on updating later today, so fear not you will not be left wondering and worrying for long.

Ps. those of you who are reading the story after I put the next chappy on lucky you cause it's not really a cliffy is it?

Twinesstar.


	12. it's not your job

Chapter 12

Lily woke up two days later in the saint mungos hospital feeling extremely exhausted. The first thing she saw was James' face.

"James." She managed trying to sit up.

"Hold on there slow down." James said pushing her gently back down onto the crisp white hospital bed.

"What happened? How long have I been here?" lily asked.

"Well according to Rachel you fell through the floor in Trixie's room after rescuing Trixie, and before you ask Trixie is fine they healed her leg in about a minute and kept her over night to make sure she was ok." James said noticing the worried look on lily's face. "You got here about one in the morning Saturday its now about noon on Monday." Lily nodded.

"So how badly am I hurt?" she asked. James looked down.

"A few broken ribs, a broken leg and arm, and a cracked skull. They healed them all while you were sleeping, and they wanted to keep you 24 hours after you woke up." He answered looking pained. Lily smiled, and reassuringly put her hand onto her husbands.

"Broken bones are easy to mend, as you should know from all your quidditch accidents at Hogwarts." Lily said smirking.

"I know that, but it's different seeing you here broken, looking so vulnerable. It's hard, mostly because you're so strong; it's just hard to see you hurting." James said looking as though he was trying to hold in tears.

"James I understand, how do think I feel when you come home from an auror mission all banged up like you were hit by a car; twice." Lily said.

"It's different." He mumbled stubbornly.

"How so?" lily asked raising her eye brow at her husband.

"Because it's my job, as the husband to protect you, not your job to protect me. So seeing you lying in a hospital bed, knowing I couldn't do anything to help you, knowing that I wasn't there for you when you really needed it. It was a horrible feeling knowing I should have been there to protect you but I couldn't." James let some tears escape as he said this.

"It's not your job to protect me, I know you feel that way but this is not your fault. I got hurt because I was rescuing Trixie. What on earth could you have done to protect me? Even if you had been there I would have fallen through. What could you have done?" lily asked.

"But that's the point I'm trying to make Lil! Even if I was there I couldn't protect you. And that scares me, I want to protect you and it scares me when I can't. Just like when you were attacked by Voldemort. I couldn't have done anything; it scares me Lil, more than anything else. I'm scared I'll lose you someday knowing there was nothing I could do to help." Tears were flowing without restraint down James' face, pain showed in his features. Lily's face had tears running down it as well. But she gave a watery smile and carefully wiped the tears from her husband's face.

"I love you." She whispered lying back down. James kissed her forehead as she fell back into a peaceful sleep.

Lily woke only a few hours later seeing not James but Rachel sitting in the plastic hospital chair.

"Lily." Rachel said as the redhead woke up. "I just wanted to say thank you so much for risking your own life to save Trixie." Rachel finished crying a little.

"Isn't that what a godmother is supposed to do?" lily asked. "But I didn't do it because I'm her godmother. I did it because I love her. I love her as much as any of my children." Lily said. Rachel gave her an awkward one armed hug.

"I never meant for you to get hurt." Rachel said looking sad.

"I know that, but I would gladly rescue her all over again knowing I would get hurt rather than watch her die." Lily said. Rachel nodded still crying. "The important thing is that she's safe."

"I knew I couldn't have picked a better godmother." Rachel said. "You would lay your life on the line for her; I hope I would be brave enough to do the same for any of your children."

"I know you would, you weren't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing. I know you would risk your own life for anyone, even a complete stranger. What with your big heart and bravery." Lily reassured her.

"Thanks Lil." Rachel said.

Lily was released the next day at one. She was kept an extra hour because the healers were fussing over her. In the 24 hours she had been at the hospital most of the time had been spent sleeping. But the rest was spent talking to her family. James had brought the kids in the next morning after breakfast and Sirius had brought Trixie in just before lunch. Sirius was now watching all four kids at the potters' cottage – as theirs was still under construction - while James stayed with lily before she left.

"Can I go now?" lily asked the healer irritably.

"Oh all right," she said back. 'Finally.' Lily thought in relief. "Just as soon as I talk to the head healer." Lily groaned.

"I _am_ the head healer!" she said in frustration.

"Oh well then I need to talk to the second in charge." She said looking a little startled by lily's outburst. She came back a moment later with one of lily's coworkers Janice.

"Hello lily." She said. "It looks like your all clear to go; I hope no ones giving you too much trouble. I know how impatient you can get being cooped up in a hospital bed." Janice smiled remembering the times lily had been strapped to a hospital bed both inside and out of Hogwarts.

"Thanks Janice does that mean I can go?" lily asked still irritated.

"Yup your all clear." Janice said smiling.

"Finally!" lily said in relief standing up from the plastic chair she had been occupying since she had gotten dressed to leave over an hour before. James who was watching the display was hiding his amusement. So typical of lily to be impatient, and the new girl had very funny reactions to lily's temper.

"Come on James." Lily said. James smiled and followed her to the waiting room where several fireplaces waited. Lily stepped into one.

"Cottage 17 godrics hallow." She said disappearing in a burst of flame. James repeated the process and arrived to see lily engulfed by the three children.

A/N phew another chappy done. Man that one was hard to write, I'm not very good at writing the overly emotional stuff but I had to get it in there so I hope you enjoyed it. I am – sort of – sorry about the cliffy and I hope you're all satisfied by the quick update. Please leave a review and tell me what you think.

Twinesstar.


	13. Margaret Rebecca Black

Chapter 13

Around a month later the entire potter-black clan found themselves back at saint mungos for another reason. Rachel was having the baby. It was about five in the afternoon and the two families had already been there since lunch time – well Sirius, Rachel, and lily had been, James had been watching the kids at his house as the blacks were still living with them at the moment. Lily was in with Rachel for now and Sirius and James were entertaining the kids. The four small children were very restless the twins had turned five only four days before. Amanda was nearly three; her birthday was about two weeks away.

"Daddy! I'm bored!" Annie whined giving her dad the puppy dog eyes.

"Well I suppose another trip to the tea room wouldn't cause too much harm." James said, reluctantly getting up from the chair. "Sirius you coming for some lunch?"

"No I think I'll stay here, lily said the baby is near." He said staring at the door as if willing it to open and bring someone to tell him he could come in because the baby was coming. "But you can take Trixie if you want, she's getting restless." James nodded knowing exactly how his friend felt. He hadn't wanted to be far from lily so close to the delivery and he knew Sirius wouldn't want to be far from Rachel either. So he took the kids to the tea room himself. They had already been there quite a few times when one or more of the families had been in saint mungos, so the workers in the tea room knew the four children quite well.

"Hello again harry, Annie." One woman said as the twins sat down at a table. She came from behind the counter with a full basket of biscuits. She then looked at James. "What brings you here this time? Not another injury I hope."

"No no my friend is having a baby," James answered. James looked down at Trixie. "Uhuh I'm gonna have a new baby broder or sisser." Trixie said through her lisp.

"How wonderful." Said the lady. "I'm just glad no one is hurt this time." James smiled remembering all to well the occasions the families had been found at the hospital.

"What's her name?" lily asked a few hours later. Rachel had just delivered a tiny baby girl. She had thick curly black hair and shiny blue eyes like her mother.

"Margaret Rebecca Black." Rachel said smiling at the tiny child in her arms. "Maggie for short." Lily smiled at the couple cooing over their second child and went to get Trixie for them. Lily knew Rachel had been happy that Trixie's clinginess was gone, but after the tree through the room she had been clingier than ever and Rachel hoped that once the baby was here she would be less clingy.

"Trixie." Lily said walking into the waiting room. It was around ten thirty and the four kids were asleep while James tried not to drift off. Remus had arrived with dinner around six and he seamed the only one awake. Lily smiled and shook the three year old awake. Trixie woke grumbling something incoherent and rubbing her eyes.

"Liwy?" she asked still half asleep.

"Hey Trixie, come with me." Lily said picking the toddler up.

"Where going?" she asked tiredly.

"We are going to see your new baby sister." Lily said. As the words were said Trixie was immediately wide awake.

"Baby sisther?" she asked no longer looking the least bit sleepy. Lily just smiled and nodded as she walked into the hospital room. "Mummy!" the little girl yelled.

"Shhh." Sirius said pulling her into his arms. "Your gonna wake the baby." He reprimanded her gently, to teach her, for she was not used to these new rules. Trixie nodded and put her finger to her mouth in a _shh_ing sign. She looked down at the sleeping figure of her new sister in her mother's arms.

"Pwetty," she whispered. Lily smiled and left the small family alone, back in the waiting room she saw James fast asleep. She decided to leave him; he was tired and had had a long day looking after the kids. She smiled looking at her sleeping children curled up on the waiting room chairs. It was only around two in the morning so lily decided to try to get some sleep in on one of the couches in the waiting room.

A few hours' later lily and James took the four older kids back home to their house since Sirius and Rachel were still staying there until their house was fixed.

"No go!" Trixie had protested. "Stay with mummy and daddy!"

"But mummy and daddy have to get the baby ready to come home, come with us and you can play with Amanda until your mummy and daddy come home." Lily said pulling a fresh shirt onto the little girl. Trixie pouted at her godmother.

"But," Trixie started.

"Mummy and daddy will be home with baby Maggie soon, and you'll be having too much fun playing to notice the time passing." Lily said as Trixie pouted again. Lily smiled holding her hand out to her goddaughter. "Come on, let's go." Trixie took her hand and lily held Amanda in the other arm while James had the twins.

The kids went to play while lily set to work making breakfast. Pancakes and scrambled eggs were on the menu.

"Smells good." James said coming up behind his wife.

"That's because its one of the only things I can make," lily said.

"What else is there? Let's see your cookies are good, meatloaf's not bad, and you can make noodles pretty well. Yup that's about it." James said earning a light smack from lily. Lily than laughed at James pouty face.

The kids all ate breakfast quickly and ran to play outside. Lily watched out the window to the back yard. The twins were having a wrestling match with James and Amanda and Trixie were playing on the slide. Lily saw that Trixie kept looking up at the house every-so-often; she knew that the three year old was waiting for her parents to get home from the hospital.

Rachel and Sirius came through the fireplace not to long after, lily smiled as Rachel walked up the stairs to put her newborn daughter in the small white bassinet in their guest room.

"Sleep well angel." Rachel said kissing her daughter's black curls. She then made her way back down the stairs, to where lily was cleaning up the last remains of breakfast.

"Hey Rache. How are you?" lily asked.

"Tired." Rachel replied sitting down. "Where are the kids?" she asked.

"Outside playing with Sirius, James just left for work before you got here." Lily said sitting down as well with two cups of ice tea. Rachel looked out the sliding glass back door as Trixie was following Sirius around refusing to let go of his hand. Rachel sighed; Trixie had just been so clingy after the storm. With good reason of course but Rachel was worried, she had just started to get over the clinginess.

"I know how you feel." Lily said. "Harry and Annie were very clingy whenever something would happen. Like the attack on Halloween, they didn't really understand what had happened but it scared them, and the attack from the death eaters, they were terrified. They wouldn't leave our sides for days, even them they were hesitant."

"I just hope she's not too clingy with the new baby and all." Rachel said. The two girls talked some more until a cry echoed from upstairs. "Be right back,"

Rachel walked into the room where her tiny baby daughter slept. As her mother picked her up from the bassinet Maggie's screams turned to soft whimpers. Rachel smiled at her baby and walked to the bed to feed her.

Back down stairs Rachel conjured a bassinet in the kitchen for Maggie, but before she could lay the tiny girl in the bassinet Sirius came through the back door walking swiftly over to his wife and daughter.

"Hey munchkin." He said pulling her into his arms and rocking her gently.

"Daddy." Said a small voice.

"Yes baby girl?" he asked looking to his oldest daughter.

"Come play?" she asked.

"Sorry baby girl, but I'm holding the baby right now. Why don't you go play with Mandy?" Trixie pulled the puppy dog eyes on her father, Sirius looked absolutely torn. Rachel decided to step in.

"Trixie mummy and daddy have to take care of baby Maggie right now but if you be extra good mummy and daddy will take you out to diagon alley for dinner and ice-cream. Ok?" Rachel said bending down to her daughter's height.

"Without the baby?" Trixie asked quizzically. Rachel gave a small laugh.

"Without the baby." She confirmed smiling. Trixie smiled back giving her mum a hug before running back outside.

A/N so tell me what you think, as always I appreciate reviews but I don't like flames. I think that's why I took a while to update this – along with my twisted ankle – because someone left me a really nasty flame. I really hope you guys like the story but if you think its bad, just don't read it there is no need to be rude and give nasty comments. I would never do that, maybe you don't like it, that's fine but it's my story and I've worked extra hard on it so if you don't like it don't read, and please don't leave nasty reviews. I do understand constructive criticism but this particular review was not constructive criticism at all. Also I would like to clear up that I do in fact use spelling and grammar check on every single chapter since I have gotten many _many_ reviews saying that my spelling and grammar is off. I do spell check promise.

Twinesstar.


	14. school orientation

Chapter 14

Trixie waited very impatiently for her parents to get her little sister ready to leave. This was the first time they were leaving her alone since she had been born almost a week before. Rachel and Sirius were fulfilling their promise and taking Trixie out on a special day just the three of them.

Rachel was putting the last bottles in the fridge when Sirius came down the stairs with baby Maggie in a fresh nappy. He handed the newborn to James who had come back from his auror mission a few days before.

"Don't worry Sirius she'll be fine, you guys go have a good time with Trixie." James said smiling down at his tiny goddaughter in his arms.

"Yeah I know she'll be safe its just we didn't leave Trixie till she was a couple months old, Maggie's only 6 days." Sirius said.

"Well the first one's always the hardest to leave." James said. Lily walked into the room with Rachel telling her the ten million things she needed to do.

"I know Rache I have three kids." Lily said in exasperation.

"Right, right, I'm sorry. I just don't want to leave her." Rachel said bending down to kiss her daughter's head.

"Alright kido," Sirius said turning to his three year old daughter. "You ready to go?" Trixie nodded enthusiastically and the three aperated to diagon alley.

"Where do you want to go first Trixie? We still have a little time before dinner." Rachel asked as Sirius swung the toddler onto his shoulders. Trixie thought for a moment.

"Owl shop." She finally said.

"Then the owl shop it is." Sirius said walking towards Eelops owl emporium. Trixie had fun looking at the many different types of owls. After Eelops they headed to dinner at the 'lazy dragon'. A small café like restaurant that Trixie loved. Trixie ordered from the kiddie menu getting mac-n-cheese and chocolate milk. Sirius and Rachel ordered two different meals and shared. After dinner they went to ice-cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor right next door. Trixie had her usual favorite of chocolate. After spending a long afternoon and evening with her parents Trixie was very tired. She started to fall asleep on Sirius's shoulders yawning widely. Rachel smiled at her oldest daughter happy that she could spend time with her.

* * *

><p>"Come on you two. You need to get ready for your kindergarten orientation." Lily said attempting to get the five year old twin ready for the orientation at a private muggle primary school called Merion's. James had been flabbergasted at the very idea of sending the twins to muggle school but lily said that it would be good for them to interact with other children their age.<p>

Finally lily got the two dressed. Annie had a jean overall dress over a pink short sleeve top while harry wore regular overalls with a blue shirt underneath. Annie had thrown a huge fit when her mother had tried to tie her hair into piggy tails so it was down as usual. Amanda was staying with Sirius and Rachel while lily took the kids to the school and James was at work.

Pulling up in the car in front of the school, this looked much like a huge white mansion, with luxurious grounds and plants growing in large gardens. The twins lost their usual talkative behavior and became unnaturally quiet.

"Come on you two." Lily said opening the door for the twins. They both seamed very nerves, lily could understand this, she had been very nerves herself at her kindergarten orientation. Opening the doors of the school lily walked into the main office.

"Hello I'm lily potter here for the kindergarten orientation." Lily said to the lady at the front desk.

"Ah yes Mrs. Potter, I will send for Julia to show you around." Said the lady. She smiled but lily got the impression that she was faking it. She called over the intercom for Julia who came a moment later. Lily noticed that she looked very young as though she had just finished school herself. "Thank you Julia will you please show Mrs. Potter and her children around the school." Julia nodded and led them back out of the front office.

"Over here we have the kindergarten wing; each of the wings belongs to a different grade level, kindergarten, first grade, second and third, and forth and fifth." She said leading them along the kindergarten wing. Lily looked into the classrooms and noticed that all the kids were wearing uniforms. The girls were in red plaid dresses with white tights and white collared shirts, the boys had plaid pants white shirts and red jackets each embellished with the school symbol. "Yes here at Merion's we believe that uniforms promote interschool unity." She said interpreting Lily's look correctly.

"And how much did you say this would cost a month?" lily asked. Julia told her the cost and lily's eyebrows rose. "That much per month?"

"oh yes, we have a strict curriculum that takes quite a bit of money to uphold, this pays for the school books and supplies that will be provided when the children start school. Here is a copy of the entire curriculum." Julia said handing the pamphlet to lily.

"Thank you Julia." She said. Julia then showed them the lunch room and specials – art, music, and phys-ed – before leading them back to the front office.

"I hope your tour was worth while," Julia said smiling as lily led the twins out.

Later that night lily told James about the school.

"That is absolutely ridiculous." James said firmly. "There is no way we are sending the twins _there_."

"James come on now the schools a good school, we have enough money to afford it, and it will set them on the right path." Lily said, as she said this though she herself knew she didn't really believe it. Sure they had enough money but the school was just too much. Five year olds should not have to wear fancy little uniforms and learn things that higher grades were just starting on.

"Why don't we just send them to the public school you went to?" James asked. "At least there they actually learn things kindergarteners' should learn instead of fourth graders.

"I guess your right, that school would be much better for the twins." Lily agreed. She decided that she would take them in the next day; it really was a better choice. The curriculum was fit for the age, the price was much more reasonable, and it was much less strict.

* * *

><p>Lily pulled the car up to another school, this one though looked much more like a school, the main building was made of brick and lily could see children playing on the large playground structure outside.<p>

"Come on I'm sure you will enjoy this school a lot more." Lily said to the scared looking twins. Inside lily again walked into an office. This one was much cozier though, where the other had had stiff chairs and one irritable lady, this school had comfy chairs and many happy looking office workers. A few of which lily recognized.

"Lily!" the main receptionist exclaimed. "Oh what a pleasurable surprise to see you here."

"Thank you terry. I was wondering whether I could enroll my twins here for kindergarten?" lily asked.

"Well of course, just fill out these papers and they can start on Monday." Terry said smiling at the twins who smiled hesitantly back. Lily sat down and began filling out the papers. While she did that another office worker gave the twins lollies and gave them paper and crayons to color. Lily was happy with this school it did have uniforms but they were much less flashy and fancy than the ones at Merion's, they consisted of just a simple white collared shirt and blue pants or skirts. The higher grades had jackets and ties as well. Of course none of her children would be attending to higher grades though as they would all be going to Hogwarts. Lily handed in the paper work to the smiling terry; lily knew she wasn't faking the smile like the other office lady. She really was happy to have two new students at the school.

"We will see you on Monday." She called as lily and the twins left the school. As she tucked her three children in bed that night she was happier than she had been the night before by a long shot. This school would defiantly be much better for her children.

A/N hey thanks you so much for reading. I know this sounds a lot like daddy day care but I was just watching that so it's kinda on my mind. Sorry for blowing up a bit in the last author's note. I was just a little stressed about the flame. But please do not hesitate to review with constructive criticism.

Twinesstar.


	15. new school, new friends

Chapter 15

**Ok so I realized that I should probably do these declaimer thingies. So I do not own harry potter. **

Harry and Annie walked nervously up the steps on their first day of school. Annie kept tugging at the collar on her blouse. Lily smiled at the two of them as they walked towards the school. Inside one of the office ladies led them through the hall way to the kindergarten class room where the twins would be.

"This is Mrs. Kelp she is going to be the twins' teacher this year." Said the office lady. She motioned inside the class room for Mrs. Kelp to come out. "JoAnne, this is Mrs. Lily potter and her twins harry and Annie."

"Why hello there." Mrs. Kelp said bending down to the twins' height. Annie looked up nervously; Mrs. Kelp was rather young with long straight dark brown hair. She smiled a little. "Why don't you two come with me and lets see if we can find you some seats?" harry and Annie both nodded and Mrs. Kelp smiled at lily and led them into the classroom. She sat them at a rectangular table across from each other. To Annie's right was a girl with bushy brown hair.

"Hi I'm Annie." She said attempting to make friends like her mother had said. But the girls just nodded not saying anything. "I'm new here. Can you tell me about school?" Annie said trying again to create conversation.

"Don't bother asking _her_!" said a rude looking boy next to harry. "She hasn't said a word since the first day here!"

"Why not?" Annie asked.

"Cause she's a know-it-all that's why." Said another boy. Annie glared at them. Of course she wouldn't talk if people teased her when she got the right answer. No one wanted to be teased.

"Now class we are going to continue sounding out words." Said Mrs. Kelp. She pointed to the board where a word was spelled. "Can anyone tell me what this one is?"

No one raised there hands. Annie assumed that this was because they were worried about being teased for knowing the answer. Well she didn't care one bit, so she raised her hand, smirking slightly at the rude boys' surprised faces.

"Yes Annie?" asked Mrs. Kelp. Annie looked at the board. M-A-T. That spelled mat!

"M-mat." Annie sounded out.

"Good job Annie." Said Mrs. Kelp. Annie smiled looking over at the bushy haired girl. She was looking at her in a strange way. Kind of shocked and admiring Annie thought.

Later in the school day the class was dismissed for recess.

"Why did you do that?" asked a small voice.

"Do what?" Annie asked. Looking to see that the speaker was the bushy haired girl.

"Answer the question. You heard what Darien said, everyone will tease you like they did me." She said.

"Well I don't care about being teased. I knew the answer and I'm proud of that." Annie said. "And you should be too. There is nothing wrong with knowing the answer. Don't let them tell you what you can't do. That's what my daddy always tells me." The girl smiled.

"Thank you." She said. "I'll try not to let it bother me. I'm Hermione by the way."

"Well it's nice to meet you Hermione." Annie said stumbling a little on the name.

"Do you want to play on the slide?" Hermione asked. Annie nodded and the two girls ran for the playground.

Mrs. Kelp watched smiling as the two girls talked. She watched as Hermione granger smiled for the first time since the first day of school. She knew the other kids had been teasing her but she could do nothing about it, as the other kids had insisted they had done nothing of the sort. All she needed was a friend. And Annie seamed like the perfect friend for her. She was very bright and she was one of the few who didn't care about getting teased. That was rare for five year old children. It was special.

After recess the students all came in and Mrs. Kelp announced that they would get into pairs and start to work on a craft project. She allowed them to move and harry moved to sit next to a boy he had met at recess. Annie and Hermione would be working together.

"So how was your first day of school?" lily asked as she picked the twins up from school.

"Good, I made a new friend, Hermione." Annie said. "She was really shy because people were teasing her, but she's really, _really_ smart."

"Well that's nice, I'm glad you made a friend." Lily said. "What about you harry? Did you have a good day?"

"I did I made some friends too. But I _really_ don't like the uniform." Harry complained pulling the collar of his shirt.

"Well I'm glad you made friends too, and I'm sure you'll get used to the uniform." Lily smiled.

As soon as they arrived home the twins darted up the stairs to change into regular clothes. Annie came down the stairs first, in the kitchen lily had prepared an afternoon snack. Pineapples and strawberries. Amanda was sitting at the table already eating a ripe strawberry. Annie sat down next to her as harry came down the stairs.

"I'm starving!" he exclaimed plopping down into a chair and digging in.

"Didn't you have lunch at school?" Annie asked.

"Yeah budat doesmeen inoh ungry." Harry said through a mouthful of fruit much to Annie's disgust.

"Ewww! Swallow your food first!" she complained. Harry swallowed.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean I'm not hungry." He said more clearly.

"But it was barely three hours ago!" Annie said.

"That's a long time!" harry said back.

"Alright that's enough." Lily cut in, as James came down the stairs.

"Hey kidos! How was school?" he said sitting in-between the twins.

"Good." Annie said, harry nodded in agreement. James accepted their answers and began to eat.

"Can we invite Hermione over to play?" Annie asked.

"Who's Hermione?" James asked.

"She's a girl I met at school." Annie responded.

"Well she's a muggle, so we have to make sure we don't do any magic while she's here." Lily said. Annie's face lit up.

"So she can come over?" Annie asked in excitement.

"Well I see no reason not to invite her." James said.

"Yeah!" Annie said.

The next day at school Annie asked Hermione to come over.

"Of course I would love that!" Hermione said excitedly.

"Oh look the two know-it-alls are BFF's." said one of the snotty girls in the class Jaclyn. Her cronies laughed.

"Well at least we won't fail our classes, unlike your group of friends who can't add two and two together." Annie retorted. Jaclyn had no response to that and motioned for her snotty cronies to leave, her nose high in the air. "Don't listen to them, they're snotty and stupid, and wouldn't know true friendship if it danced right in front of them." Hermione giggled.

"So I'll ask my mum and dad if I can come over." She said as Mrs. Kelp called the class to order.

"Hermione calm down we'll be there in a minute." Hermione's mum said as Hermione bounced in her seat. Hermione was much exited. Her mum was driving her over to Annie's house for a sleepover as it was Friday. She had spent the whole day yesterday packing; she packed her favorite books and movies, along with her PJs and toothbrush.

They arrived at the small cottage, and Hermione's mother helped her carry her bag and pillow to the house.

_Ding dong_.

"Hello!" exclaimed lily. "Welcome, you must be Hermione's mother."

"Yes I'm jean granger. Nice to meet you." Said Mrs. Granger.

"Yes its lovely to meet you too, I'm lily potter." Lily said leading them into the house. "Would you like something to drink? Tea?"

"Yes please tea would be nice." Jean smiled.

"Hermione!" Annie exclaimed. Hermione smiled and the two girls disappeared up the stairs.

"So Mrs. Potter." Began jean granger.

"Oh please call me lily." Lily said.

"Alright lily, have you lived here long?" jean asked.

"Since harry and Annie was about one. But we've traveled around a bit. Staying at James parents' old house for vacations and stuff." Lily said trying to come up with a good explanation for why they had left because of the death eater attacks. "How about you? How long have you lived in the village?"

"Oh we've lived here since mark and I first married." Jean said.

"Well I'm glad the girls are friends." Lily said.

"Oh yes it's wonderful that Hermione has made such a good friend." Jean responded.

A/N ok so what did you all think? Were you surprised I put Hermione in there so early on? I think I am going to make harry more friends with Hermione than Annie just so it's a bit more cannon. Do you think I should have them tell Hermione and her parents she is a witch? If so when should I tell them? Please review with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Twinesstar.


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